


the crown hangs heavy on either side

by orphan_account



Category: Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Gang World, Blood and Injury, Doomed Relationship, Emotional Manipulation, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Knife Violence, M/M, Partner Betrayal, Partners to Lovers, Personality Swap, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Surprise Ending, Unhealthy Relationships, Unrequited Hate, i dont know if we can say it has a happy ending or not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 01:58:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Being so in love is gonna kill one of you someday."Or, Tyler and Josh are invincible against the world, but not against each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure why my brain decided that it wanted this to be written, but I'm not complaining. There's a headcanon hint of Josh having MPD in this, but to each their own. I can't really tag any of this happily... 'cause it's not that happy.... Enjoy.

"I should have known it was you," Tyler spits, literally, and blood comes out with his words, "I know you better than anyone else. I suspected you, just didn't want to believe it."

"You thought you knew me better," Josh mutters, staring a pitiful looking Tyler right in the eyes.

 

**.....**

 

"We're being infiltrated! Somehow they found out about our plan," Ryan yelled through Tyler's walkie talkie.

Tyler's eyes widened as he looked towards the opposing gang leader, whose smile turned sinister as his entire gang pulled out their hidden weapons. Tyler's gang soon copied their actions.

"I'm quite offended that you thought you could get by with taking down my crew without me finding out," The man said with a smirk, pointing the barrel of his pistol at Tyler's forehead.

Brendon quickly pulled out his own weapon and went to step forward, only for Tyler to stop him.

"How did you know? I thought we were pretty sneaky, if I do say so myself," Tyler questioned warily, taking a quick glance at Gerard who was on one of the walk paths on the upper floor. It was quick enough to see Gerard's nod.

"We have connections that, apparently, you don't, Mr. Blurry," The opposing gang leader smirked at him and the six guys by his side, "You know, we agreed on no weapons during this meeting. Only the contraband."

A snort fell from Dallon's lips as he kept his pistol pointed towards the guy in front of him, "Yeah, and you followed those rules real well too."

"Connections?" Tyler raised an eyebrow, "What goes on in my group doesn't go outside of those lines."

Ryan's voice made it's static presence through the walkie again, "You guys need to get out of there! The place is gonna blow soon!"

"Ty, we need to go, now," Josh nudged him, looking worriedly between both groups, "All of us are gonna die if we don't," and despite the red head's attempts to make Tyler lower his gun, he never did.

"I'm afraid that you guys won't be leaving alive," The opposing gang leader said and began to pull the trigger.

Tyler reciprocated, only to direct his gun to the guy over when Gerard shot a hole through the leader's head for him. He quickly watched his crew taking care of the multiple men trying to hide behind the crates and boxes stacked around the warehouse, while taking cover himself.

"I'm fucking serious, the timer reads four minutes," Ryan yelled.

"Can't you stop it?!" Tyler grunted into the mic of the walkie. He looked to his left to see the wide exit that he was hoping they could escape through, but too many bullets were being shot from the other side. They'd have to be smart, yet risky about it.

"I can't hack into it's system, I'd have to physically cut the wires," Ryan responded, cutting out quickly.

There was a particular gunshot and a whimper followed by it on his side that caused him to look over. Josh was crawling to cover behind a crate while blood was coming from just above his knee. He looked over to Tyler and shook his head.

"We can't take them on our own, we have to go," Josh called. Tyler really didn't want to, but he knew that they had to if they wanted to get out with only minor injuries, which the minor injuries were classified as everything but death.

Tyler sighed angrily and brought the walkie back to his mouth, "Gerard; you, Frank, Spencer, Pete, and Ray need to evacuate as soon as possible. We're getting out of here," Tyler ordered in the form of a suggestion.

The brunet saw Ryan pull up in the vehicle, out of sight from the other gang. He looked back over to Josh and to Brendon who was next to the red head, "Josh isn't walking until we get him bandaged. You gotta carry him out, the rest of us will keep shooting."

"I can walk just fine," Josh argued, “A gunshot wound is nothing.”

"You won't be able to walk anymore if you limp and get shot and die, then a bullet wound will be more than just _nothing_. Let him carry you," Tyler said, pointedly glaring at Josh, waiting for Brendon to scoop Josh up before standing with Dallon, Joe, Rian, and Alex.

The five of them shot at the men opposite to them, covering Brendon and Josh at the same time. They only killed two men in the midst of it, but their rush of bullets kept the rest of them from getting hurt while leaving. Once they got to Ryan's SUV, they rushed Josh into the very back with Tyler while the others scrunched together on the next row of seats.

Tyler gently laid Josh length ways and pulled the red head’s legs over his lap. He inspected the bullet wound, then ripped off the bottom half of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound as Ryan began speeding away from the warehouse, while trying to avoid bullets coming from the men stranded behind.

All of them kept their heads ducked, and Tyler softly gasped when a bullet flew past his head and put a hole in the rear window. Ryan swerved onto the curve of the road just as the warehouse went up in flames, and the car went over a bump, causing Josh's leg to bounce.

Josh screamed in pain, "Holy shit!" He groaned and went to put his hand over the wound, but Tyler slapped his hand away. Josh glared at his partner and growled, " _Blurry._ "

Tyler glared right back, " _Spooky_. Don't touch it, it might get infected if you do too much with it," He sounded like a mom, but he didn't care. Josh was his most valuable member, even if he didn't openly say it. Everyone knew it and never complained. They thought that the two worked perfectly together side by side, better than any of the others ever could.

"Frank and the others just made it back to the house," Brendon informed as he looked down at his phone.

"Tell Patrick to prepare the infirmary for a gunshot wound," Tyler ordered, not taking his eyes off of Brendon until the ebony haired one nodding and began typing.

Tyler felt Josh's blood seeping through his own jeans, sadly used to the feeling and not grossed out. All he wanted was for his partner to get fixed up, not caring about anything else.

"What do you think that guy was talking about when he said he had connections?" Dallon asked, looking at everyone curiously, "Do you think someone in our gang's spilling secrets to other gangs?"

"We can't question the loyalty of our crew. All of us are like fucking family, it'd be bigger than a dick move to go against us," Brendon replied, sending a look towards Dallon that seemed to openly ask 'are you stupid?'.

"I'm just saying. It's my only reasoning unless there's someone from the outside doing it," Dallon shrugged in defense, and everyone let those be the last words said in the SUV.

 

**.....**

 

"Why'd you do it?" Tyler asks breathlessly, feeling the most vulnerable that he ever has. He never cries, he's always been the strongest one in their group. Though, when he sees all of his crew members on the floor, lying dead, he feels the tears rolling down.

"Why wouldn't I? I made my way into the most well known gang of Ohio, only to tear them down from the inside. I didn't think you guys so could be so clueless and stupid, but here we are," Josh sighs with an eye roll as he thinks back to all of the times that him being the traitor was so obvious.

 

**.....**

 

"Please don't..."

Josh turned the corner when he heard a woman's voice. He saw as two men had her pinned to an alleyway wall, and untucked his hands from his pockets. The sound of his knuckles cracking made all three heads turn towards him.

"Surely you guys aren't hurting a poor, defenseless lady, right?" Josh asks, faking stupidity, "Come on, guys, sexual assault isn't classy at all."

"Who the fuck are you?" One of the guys -the one holding the girl's hands against the brick- asked.

"I'm just an alley walker, watching the city come alive from behind the cracks of destroyed hope and despair, y'know, like the rest of us who aren't big CEOs and whatnot," Josh sighed and walked closer, "Usually I don't care about who hurts who, but I really don't stand for rape."

"Then I guess that we have to kill you off, you've already seen our faces," The other guy by the side said, pulling out a knife.

"Not exactly, really— I'm colorblind. And I've got astigmatism, so the both of you kind of look like blurry blobs," Josh grinned and shrugged, "I actually have an eye appointment tomorrow, so please, let me live long enough for me to get contacts."

"Sorry, no such luck," The guy with the knife said and rushed forward.

Josh groaned and grabbed the guy's arm, bending it behind his back and shoving him against the opposite wall of the other guy, and slammed his head into the brick, knocking him out. He quickly found himself smushed against the brick, but watched as the lady scattered away.

"Yeah, thanks for calling the police, lady!" He called out, getting ready to kick back at the guy pushing against him, until he heard a grunt and the weight was off of his back.

He turned around and saw the guy on the ground, the back of his head slowly drenching in a puddle of blood. He looked to the figure standing in front of him, seeing a guy in a baseball cap and a black hoodie. There was an ice pick in his hand, which wasn't a weapon of choice that Josh saw everyday.

"I wonder when people will stop messing with what's mine," The stranger pondered, dark eyes looking straight into Josh's.

"What's _yours_?" Josh snorted, "What? Do you own Columbus, or something?"

"I kind of do. My name's Blurry," He introduced, holding out his left hand that didn't have spots of blood on it.

Josh accepted the handshake, grinning when realizing who it was, "I'm Spooky," He replied. Blurry tucked his ice pick in his hoodie pocket and smiled at him. He raised his eyebrows and looked at the brunet for a bit before walking away.

"You're a little rusty, but I could teach you if you'd like?" Blurry suggested. Josh stopped in his tracks and went through the options in his head. He smirked, out of sight from Blurry and turned back around.

"How can I refuse?"

 

**.....**

 

They never tiptoed around each other. Tyler was always on his back, helping him practice with his technique. He was always by Tyler's side during missions, and nowhere else. It soon became Josh and Tyler, Tyler and Josh. Never Tyler and anybody else, or Josh and anybody else.

Everybody adjusted to Josh being part of the crew, and they all got along quickly. Frank really hit it off with Josh, simply because of the fact that they agreed that Star Wars was the best movie series in all history. Not to mention, Frank let Josh read all of his Marvel comics, never even having Gerard, his closest friend in the crew, read them.

Him and Tyler hadn't told each other their real names until two months in. He was still Spooky to everybody else, and told Tyler that it was okay if the brunet called him by his actual name. Tyler didn't care, and kept calling him Spooky, it never bugged Josh though, considering he always called Tyler Blurry. His actual name wasn't revealed to the crew until five months in.

Training was three times a week since the very beginning, and even though Tyler had let Josh be his side partner, he hadn't really earned it yet.

"Your stance is off," Tyler said lowly, kicking the inside of Josh's foot away from his other one, "I know that you're good with a gun, but you need to be good with a knife too."

"I'm just fine with a knife," Josh muttered stubbornly, "You have too little faith in me."

"You were ready to have a knife plunged through your skull when I first met you," Tyler brought up, taking Josh's fingers wrapped around the knife and took the knife from his hand, only to put it back and reposition the red head's fingers, "I have every right to have too little faith in you. There's no more room for anymore faith at the moment, unless you want to try and prove you’re better."

"You met me a year ago, Blurry. I've definitely improved since then," Josh pointed out.

Tyler tilted his head to the side and quilted an eyebrow, "I've had to correct you on something every day since training began," He huffed.

Josh knew that he caught the brunet off guard when shoving him against the closest wall, parting his feet properly and holding Tyler against the wall. He rose his knife and abruptly brought to Tyler's chest, only to stop just as the blade cut a tiny hole in the fabric of the brunet's shirt.

"Did you see that one coming?" Josh asked with a smirk, nearing his face to Tyler's so their noses were touching. He breathed deeply and fast, a far contrast to Tyler's smooth and calm breathing, "Betchya' didn't know that I had it in me."

"It's always the try hard punks who are the most predictable," Tyler grinned, switching their positions so Josh was against the wall. He took Josh's knife and threw it somewhere behind them, then pressed closer to Josh's body, "Do you dye your hair colors of the rainbow and then think you're some sort of badass?"

Josh grunted, unable to break free of Tyler's constraints, "You already said that I'm good with a gun. Just because I'm not so great with a knife doesn't mean that I'm not a badass."

"So that's a yes?" Tyler retorted smartly.

Josh bit his lip and nodded in defeat. It was only then that he noticed where Tyler's thigh was slotted, and how much closer they had gotten. Tyler had seemingly noticed too, and paused to look Josh in the eye before hesitantly grinding against him.

Josh sighed quietly, moving his hips in time with Tyler's.

That was the first time that they had ever slept together. It was unexpected to both of them, but it had uncovered bits and pieces of them to each other. No doubt everyone else in the building had heard them, but they didn't care. It was another reminder that Josh was Tyler's, and Tyler was Josh's.

It was the first of many times. They switched positions a lot, Josh usually being on top, although he preferred being on the receiving end. The first time they had ever spoken each other's actual names was a year after the shenanigans began, and from then on, when they weren't on a mission, they went by their actual names.

It was also easier for the both of them, because off-duty, Josh was Josh and Tyler was Tyler. At the start of each mission, Tyler's eyes would darken and his lips would curve more into a devious smile; his hands would twitch and his neck would tighten up on him, the adrenaline being the worst kind of drug for him. He became Blurry. Josh always smeared red around his eyes and his senses kicked in a little more, he'd laugh crazily at the sickest of things, and would be lighter on his feet. He became Spooky.

They lightly scared their own crew, but the rest of them knew that it was a good thing that the two were on their side. If they had to face Spooky and Blurry, they'd be goners.

 

**.....**

 

"We all trusted you, I trusted you. I thought that we were a team, that we worked good together. Did it mean nothing to you?" Tyler sniffles, shrinking under Josh. His legs eventually give out and he sinks to the floor with a broken sob.

Josh towers over him with a remorseless gleam in his eyes, "You were a good fuck, Blurry, you really were, but it didn't give the satisfaction that this did."

"We were your friends," Tyler looks to Brendon's outstretched arm, and the knife wound leaking on the side of his head. Tyler flashes back to the sight of the blade going through both sides of Brendon's head, and then watching him fall to the ground. He sobs again and pulls his knees to his chest.

He sees Ryan sat against the wall opposite of him, multiple stab wounds around and on his heart. Blood is still dripping from his mouth, which reminds Tyler of the crimson substance covering his own teeth. He shakily wipes his chin and tries wiping it off of his hands on the stone flooring, scraping his hands so badly.

"You're so pathetic now. Just a few hours ago, you were leader of everything and on top of the world. I can't believe that I turned the tables like this," Josh snickers kicking Tyler's legs so they lay flat, and then steps over the stab wound of Tyler's stomach.

Tyler cries out, trying to pull Josh's foot away, but nothing works with how weak he is. All he does is beg and plead, but it's not enough. When Josh does lift his foot off, it feels like he can finally breathe again.

 

.....

 

"You guys are so disgusting," Brendon laughed at Josh and Tyler who sat on the couch and nipped at each other's necks while some of the others played a board game at the coffee table.

"I don't think you'd complain if you had special access to a gang leader," Josh chuckled, hooking a finger around the collar of Tyler's shirt, "Or maybe you're just jealous."

"Far from it," Brendon mumbled, hissing a 'yes!' when he got his get out of jail free card on Monopoly, to which Ryan banged his fist against the floor, "My needs are already being sufficiently supplied."

Ryan gagged and pushed Brendon away from him, "You're so gay, Brendon," He said in a high pitched voice.

Brendon grinned and nuzzled his face against Ryan's neck, tickling the brunet who giggled at the action, "I'm so bisexual," He corrected teasingly, taking advantage of Ryan's distractedness to knock his tiny dog off of the board.

Gerard and Frank watched boredly from the other side of the board, deciding to just play each other rather than all four of them.

"I feel like one day I'm just gonna walk into a big orgy," Patrick walked into the room, that being his first thing said after entering. Tyler snorted and Josh cackled, Ryan and Brendon being too caught up in each other to even care.

When things calmed down around all of them, Josh faced Tyler and looked at his partner, and Tyler looked back at him after a bit.

"Do you think that you love me?" Josh asked out of the blue.

Tyler's eyes widened and he bit his lip in consideration. It was enough to give Josh his answer, but Tyler still did anyways, "This—we're a gang, Josh. Our lives aren't these fluffy and rainbow filled mornings with birds tweeting outside the window. I enjoy our times together and being close, physically, but I can't really fall in love in a situation like this."

"But, if we weren't in a gang, could you love me?"

There was a long pause between the two.

"I don't know."

Tyler believed that he had gotten softer than how he used to be. Josh had done something that he never would have expected, stuff that only happened to the people around him, but never to him. He thought he had found someone who unlocked every part of him, even though he didn't feel able to love anyone. Josh was that person though, and he felt kind of relieved and not completely heartless when it happened.

It was risky being in love and being in a gang. The two things didn't flow and they weren't exactly options. It was one or the other. Fooling around was okay, which is what the two of them were doing. And it wasn't bound to go any further than that, or so Tyler had hoped.

 

**.....**

 

Hope wasn't on Tyler's side, it never was.

The words _'Josh's been hurt bad'_ , had rung through his hears, through his mind, through his lungs. It settled a sick feeling in his stomach, and he was instantly running over to the docks by the isolated shipyard. Multiple men laid lifeless on the pier Tyler ran to, but one stuck out.

Patrick and Gerard were kneeling by Josh, trying to stop the bleeding coming from Josh's side. Tyler went over to Josh's other side, looking at the guns by the guys bodies, and then at the knife in Josh's hand, fingers softly curved around the handle. Tyler winced as Josh cried when pressure was put against the wound.

"We really need to leave, but if we don't treat him now, he won't make it through the ride home," Patrick spoke softly, pulling out a roll of thick bandaging from a bag.

Tyler nodded and pulled the knife from Josh's hand and replacing it with his own hand, "You're an idiot. You never bring a knife to a gunfight," He spat angrily, squeezing Josh's hand.

Josh gave him a half grin, groaning and coughing when the bandaged got wrapped around his wound, "Just wanted to impress a certain somebody."

"Yeah, and then I had to save your ass," Gerard remarked, "Being so in love is gonna kill one of you someday."

Tyler looked away and stood up, fixing up his jacket, "Clear this place of the bodies and get Josh fixed up pronto. If you take longer than ten minutes, I'll have Ryan and Spencer drive off without you," He cleared his throat and walked off without another look.

His heart began to hurt when he heard about Josh being hurt, and he knew exactly why. The one thing that he didn't need to happen was happening, and it angered him so much, yet he knew that he had to accept it.

 

**.....**

 

"You're the reason why we started getting into trouble. I bet you only got yourself hurt to make it look like you weren't working with opposing gangs, huh?" Tyler croaks. He weakly glances up towards Josh, who eventually crouches down so their eyes are level.

Josh's smile is sickening enough to make him want to puke venom, "You're a smart cookie!"

"You're sick," Tyler growls.

"It must've been good on my part, considering it's what got you to confess your love for me. I wasn't even in that much pain, and all of the choking was fake," Josh admits, twirling the tip of his knife around his finger, "I felt fireworks inside when you said those three words. Usually fireworks happen because the other person feels the same way romantically, but I felt fireworks because I knew that you were getting soft enough to bruise."

Josh grins and cups Tyler's jaw, "You're my little peach. Beaten and broken, but you sure tasted good."

"Can you honestly look me in the eye a-and say that you never loved me?" Tyler asks finding courage and strength.

Josh looks at him blankly for a moment, then raises the corner of his upper lip, "Not really. I fell in love with parts of you, but not actually you."

 

**.....**

 

"You guys are the best," Josh hummed with a smile, giving Dallon and Pete a side hug while looking at the birthday cake on the kitchen table, "I've spent all of my birthdays alone since I was sixteen," He sighed.

"Not anymore," Pete assured, "You're with us for the rest of your life, buddy. No more birthdays spent alone, and we're gonna spoil you each year."

"You really don't have to do that, I don't deserve it," Josh's face went red and he tried backing away from the scene, but Brendon and Frank were there to keep him from leaving.

"As long as you're a part of this family, you deserve the stuff we give you," Frank said.

They made Josh blow out twenty-eight candles and Patrick smashed his piece of cake against Josh's face, which everybody laughed at. Spencer had even videoed it, and Josh had to fight him to delete it.

When the night was almost over and all of them were gathered in the living room, Tyler tapped Josh's shoulder gently and whispered in his ear, "I have a present for you."

"Does it involve no clothes and lube?" Josh asks with a nasty grin.

Tyler shook his head and pulled him off of the couch and to his room, or their room. Josh hadn't used his own room in two years.

When they got to the room, Tyler had Josh close his eyes and hold his hands out. There was a coolness against the red head's hands, and he opened his eyes to see a knife with a smooth wooden handle. 'B.F' was on one side of the handle and 'S.J' was on the other. Josh smiled and pulled Tyler into a hug.

"I love it, thank you, Ty," Josh sighed happily, "I love you."

"I love you too, Josh," Tyler replied in a calm tone, but his heart was pounding.

 

**.....**

 

In the blink of an eye, Tyler’s entire team was being shot down. They were walking out to leave, and suddenly, Tyler was watching Pete and Gerard get shot multiple times through the chest. The rest of them turned around quickly and shot at the opposing gang, yet Tyler never saw Josh. He could’ve sworn he was with them.

“Where’s Josh?” Tyler asked worriedly. The others gave shrugs, so Tyler signalled for them to go back into the warehouse and look. Tyler and Brendon paired up and went into one of the control rooms, hearing a gunshot as soon as the door shut behind of them.

“Was that Ryan?” Brendon asked nervously, a waver in his voice. He opened up the door and walked back out with Tyler. When they got to a clear area, both of them saw Ryan against a crate, bleeding out and already dead, “That’s— _no_. It can’t be,” Brendon choked, fingers tightening around his gun.

Tyler backed up a little, holding his gun up and scoping around. What if Josh was in the same predicament? “What if that’s what happened to Josh? Who the fuck did we miss?”

That’s when it happened. He watched Brendon go to turn and face him, just as a flash of red appeared and the blade that he had sharpened for Josh, went right through Brendon’s head.

“Josh is doing just fine, Sweets,” Josh grinned, winking at his old partner and letting Brendon’s body drop to the ground.

Tyler felt like he couldn’t breathe, he didn’t really want to either.

“It was _you_?” Tyler whispered. His fingers loosened around his gun, he couldn’t shoot Josh. And that’s when Josh took advantage of him being off guard, and just barely pierced his skin with the knife.

Tyler breathed out a whine of pain and sagged against the wall.

“I didn’t mean to make this so tragic. I don’t really want to kill you,” Josh sighed, looking at him with bored eyes, “But I may have to.”

 

**.....**

 

“I don’t want to fight you,” Tyler claims, and there’s so much truth seeping through his words. He doesn’t want to hurt the one who he’s been attached to since the first time that they met, five years ago.

“Don’t want to? Or is it that you _can’t_ fight me? I mean, you’re getting pretty pale there, Bunny,” Josh cockily points out, slapping Tyler’s cheek lightly but mockingly.

Josh could kill him right now, and yeah, he’d be mad. He wouldn’t be able to get over the love that he still feels for the traitor. That makes him almost angrier than anything else. He loves the one who broke him down until he was nothing, the one who killed all of his friends. The one who’s completely heartless, even though he covered it up so well.

He sees the faint amber curling around in Josh’s irises, the same amber that Tyler fell in love with every time he was getting ready to go into a mission. He sees the uprise of his upper lip, turning into another smile, and remembers how it used to be because of the times he’d wake up in Tyler’s arms in the mornings.

Tyler loves Josh so much, but his biggest regret is taking him in. Love isn’t supposed to hurt so bad, so bad that it makes you _want_ to suffer from the pain that they’re causing, it isn’t supposed to make you wonder when on earth you became so messed up and lovesick enough to take a bullet for them, a bullet that _they’re_ shooting.

When Brendon and Ryan talked about loving each other no matter what, Tyler finally understands what that means. Josh can stab his heart however many times he pleases, but Tyler is still going to love him.

"Acting some parts in high school really came in handy later on," Josh hums, "I fooled all of you so good. And now I get to finish you off with the knife that you made for me."

"You aren't the Josh that I got to know, the one that I knew that I loved," Tyler cries, eyeing the knife pointed towards him.

"It's Spooky to you. Josh isn't real, it's always been Spooky. All of it was a lie so nobody would believe that I was nothing but a _monster_ ," Josh explains harshly. His lips curve into a grin as he looks down on Tyler, “Give me one last kiss, Sweetheart.”

But a kiss to Josh, is Tyler's final breath.

He brings the knife up, and Tyler closes his eyes, ready to take the hit and be finished off. But there's the sound of a knife stabbing someone, but it isn't him. He opens his eyes slowly to see Dallon behind Josh. Dallon twists the knife in Josh's back, and Josh spits out blood and groans, quickly becoming limp and falling over Tyler's lap.

Tyler looks at Dallon with relief and smiles the best that he can. Dallon nods at him and stands, holding his balled up flannel against his own stomach wound. Dallon knocks Josh off of Tyler and pulls the other brunet up. He holds Tyler close while Tyler looks down at Josh's dead body.

"I was more upset when he was ready to kill me," Tyler whispers, "I can't believe he was the one all along."

"No time to back track now," Dallon mutters and walks out of the building with Tyler.

What just happened will always be a burden on Tyler. It's going to haunt him until he dies himself, but the last thing he wants to happen is for it to take control of him. He's weaker than he used to be, and he's not sure if he can build up that strength again. But he'll be damned if he doesn't at least try to stray from this as much as he can.

"I thought everyone died."

"Well, you thought wrong. Patrick and Frank are still at the base. I tried being as subtle as possible while checking for everybody else's pulses, but it was no good. Then I found you and him," Dallon explains lightly, "He only hurt me a little, not enough to kill me."

"How do we come back from this?" Tyler asks quietly.

"You're the leader here. You'll find a way. It's what the others would want," Dallon sniffles at the remembrance of seeing most of his friends lying on the ground dead. Most of them had been taking out by another gang that Josh paired up with beforehand, but then others had been taken out by Josh himself.

"Y-yeah. We'll get through it. We can do it, can't we?"

"Of course. You're Blurry, remember?"

Blurry always went with Spooky, but now those times were over. They'd be in dark times for a while, but they'd recover.

Tyler would make sure of it.


End file.
